The Albumeasy Examples Thread With Code

This is an alternate way. This may be more appropriate in another thread.

Open PDF in LibreOffice Draw. Draw will import with elements editable. LibreOffice is free but I have made financial contributions to the group.



In Page Properties, set even margins (16mm). This moves the visible margin to assist with accurate placement.. It is always visible for me. Note it does not affect the page elements.



Using your mouse, drag to create a selection box around the page. You can then use left cursor on keyboard to move the selection to the left. You use the margin guide to align it.

Note. I intentionally did not move it all the way to the level to show movement.



If you want to print on larger paper, then you can change page sizes and margins to assist.

What is missing is a PDF to AlbumEasy converter. A true PDF is contracted with a page description language and AE creates PDGFs AE syntax. Yes, Steiner has rules on derivative works.

Al,

Tried it - works great. Thank you! Wish you didn't have to do it page-by-page, though. I mean the selection, then CTRL-SPACE-G to group it, then move it left. I have previously run into translation problems (kerning) with the spacing when converting Steiner to LibreOffice Draw. And I think that could also be a factor - it all depends on how Draw converts the Steiner PDF. I have some Steiner pages (mainly from the modern period) that won't convert at all...

Your method is quicker than my AlbumEasy method. However, my method results in an exact duplicate (in every way) of the Steiner PDF. Clearly, for the classic period pages, your method is preferred.

Neat stuff.




Yes, he does - but I do not think that would impact someone who has bought his pages and has done a conversion for personal use.

Theoretically, I could convert all of my Steiner pages to JPG or PNG (easy enough with online tools) and then construct an AlbumEasy page which displays the resultant JPG or PNG image on each page (with no border on the image) and do it that way, as well.

All roads lead to Rome, it seems.

John

Yes when you import, the fonts will change to what you have set up in Draw as default which is Liberation Sans. I set my default to Helvetica. You also need to change inter character spacing to 0.4 or so to match Steiner spacing.

I had looked at how to automate creating Album Easy syntax using simple Microsoft Excel Formulas. I have all my Machin data in Excel and noticed the repetition of retyping a lot of information from Excel into AE.

The example I am shown is a crude but seemed to work. I am no wizard with Excel and not using macros.

1. There is the data in Excel.


2. I composed a sample line of text in a new sheet (note to see formulas, you can use "Show Formulas). I had added a hint on which column had desired data. Now, if your stamp boxes are different sizes you would have columns with that information and then added formulas.


3. This is the same view with resolved data. This is checking the logic.


4. I created a new sheet for the final resolved data.

I referenced the fixed information from the other sheet (used absolute values) and then referenced the changing information (relative values) from source sheet.


5. Example of first row


6. You can then use the Drag to Fill function to create the data. It may look like duplicate information but they are unique. To filter out undesired rows you would create a separate filtered view to use as your source.



7. You can then paste in AW. My attempt was just to see if it was possible.

Hi Al, that is a great idea.

I had in the past given some consideration to the suggestion by someone for an AE add-on that would import Excel spreadsheets.
However, I then came into contact with "Collector Dave" who had created the "World Stamp Collector" database application and helped him integrate the ability to generate AE files directly from WSC, so I abandoned the Excel import idea. In fact, I have a whole page of albums generated by World Collector on the AE website.

Unfortunately, Collector Dave has since disappeared, I last heard from him about a year ago and there have been no updates to WSC since.

Clive

Al and Clive,

Good stuff!




I downloaded all the source files, too. Very handy when doing pages in AE and you don't know the dimensions... I have not found too many mistakes in the WC dimensions from the WC files.

My "dream" AE request would be some kind of dimension look-up within the app to copy and paste dimensions. This would require a DB, of course - and a heck of alot of work...

John

Thinking more about dimensions...

Perhaps an easier way would be to use the "dimensions formula" first outlined by member Phillystamper here on SCF:

(You need an image of the stamp)

Simply count the perfs along the width or and length, Divide that # by the perf size and multiply by 2. That's the size in cm.

An associated spreadsheet in AE would add the extra step of converting the cm's to mm's (to copy and paste into the AE code).

That would be simpler than have some huge DB somewhere.

John

John,
That is a handy tip, I always forget to use it, and of course, multiplying by 20 instead of 2 will give mm directly.

it is disappointing however that Collector Dave seems to have abandoned the WSC project, last I heard he had about half a million stamps in the database and it was still growing.

I had the sense that he was getting a little overwhelmed about a year or so back, so I offered to help with the software so that he could concentrate on adding to the database, but I never heard back from him.

He still posts occasionally on another forum to say that he is still working on WSC, but even these posts have become less frequent.
Clive

Clive,

I whipped up a spreadsheet that automates the # of perfs to final AE mm conversion quite a while ago. I have used it quite a bit for AE, especially for topical pages.

I've emailed it to you separately just now.

John

What is the accuracy of calculating by perf when the perf is often a rounding? For example, would it be within 1 mm (+/- 0.5)

Al,

I did a couple of tests this morning on some random images, and the accuracy rate was always within 1 mm, using my spreadsheet.

I have just now emailed the spreadsheet to you, so that you can take a look/test yourself.

If either of you gentlemen can improve my spreadsheet, please do so! And share with me...

John

John I received the email.

John,
The spreadsheet is great, thanks for sending it.
After experimenting with a few stamps, I find that the method does work well, however, one should be aware that the perforation gauge quoted in catalogues is generally to the nearest half (well it is for SG, I am not sure about Scott).

The other area where I have had some difficulty in getting an accurate count is with relatively coarse line-perforated stamps e.g p11 which often have very rough rounded-off corners.
Clive

Thanks, Clive. For an odd perf gauge measurement, I would just input the nearest hundredths measurement such as 12.25 for 12 1/4, 12.75 for 12 3/4, etc.

I only use the formula when I do not know the exact dimensions. The catalogs always have the perf measurements. The optimum way would be to have a database with all correct measurements already, but such a thing does not exist. I haven't figured out a way to extract the dimensions from the WSC database to be able to use in any meaningful way outside of that DB (have to look up one stamp at a time from the AE source code).

For AE purposes, if you use the

STAMP_BOXES_SIZE_ADJUST(0)

command (or increment a bit higher) the stamp box will still be larger than the actual stamp, at least it was for me in my experiments.

Perhaps the formula could be tweaked a bit to give a more accurate result.

John